Videography and copyrighted music on YouTube

[EvanJScott]

Hi There,

First time posting here - long time fan of AirshowStuff and Airshows in general! I've recently gotten very into shooting Airshows and posting them on YouTube. However, I've had some trouble recently with the music playing over the loudspeakers during the performances triggering YouTube's copyright filters.

In looking at videos from prominent Airshow YouTubers - I've noticed that they don't seem to have this issue. Is there some obvious trick I'm missing on how to avoid capturing the music? Standing far away from the loud speakers would disadvantage the video portion as you'd want to be as close to the crowd line/action as possible. It would also mean that the narration isn't audible which I think is quite helpful to include.

Is it a special directional microphone? Some special EQ applied in post?

Any and all tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[RyanS]

Welcome to the painful world of video Before I was using Youtube I used to post the videos here on the site which obviously has no copyright filter and life was great! Now It's a minefield of copyright flags.

There is no one special trick but a combination of things to avoid music whenever possible, just a general approach to it.

Avoiding speakers is the biggest. We go to great lengths to sit in weird spots away from the speakers to film. Sometimes I'll even skip a show entirely if I don't think I can avoid the speakers.

We also use a directional mic on the camera to help cut down on the background stuff. Another tip is to turn off auto gain in the camera, which prevents it from soaking up music during parts when the aircraft is quiet. Our gains are locked fairly low.

Sometimes editing can save a clip if you trim it very close to the start and end of a pass when the aircraft is masking the music. Or you can play other editing games like dipping the volume or sliding some narration audio closer to the actual flyby so that it covers up enough of the music to avoid getting flagged.

Finally, it is possible to use certain songs as long as you can accept the limitations that get placed on the video, like no ads or blocks in certain countries. Youtube also has a feature that tries to mute the songs it finds while leaving the rest of the audio. I have not found this to work well, but it is worth a shot as a last ditch effort to save a video.

[EvanJScott]

Oh man - ok I'm glad I'm not crazy! Thanks for the response.

For my latest El Centro video I ended up taking audio clips from practices filmed a few weeks prior to fill in the most egregious parts. But then of course got a few comments asking where the music was Doing that for every single video seems impractical and too time consuming. I'm thinking it's a good idea to get "room tone" of just ambient show/crowd sounds when out on a record to fill in the gaps. Once the jet roar is loud enough the music is drowned out.

Those are all great tips you listed. Sitting far from the speakers is a bummer as it affects the video quality and means no narration. There's gotta be some AI tool that will be able to strip out the worst of it soon... Until then I will adjust my positioning and work around it.

Is there a particular mic you use that is highly directional and works well for this? I have a shotgun mic but clearly it's not directional enough.

Thank you for your response - much appreciated!

[Adam]

100% agree on turning off auto gain and avoiding shows with known overly-loud speakers.

There are a couple of things I'll pick up on here with two potentially useful ideas contained within.

Is it a special directional microphone?

Yes but also no. Directional microphones are great but have pitfalls. If you have a speaker to your left and put the microphone on top of the camera like you're "supposed" to, you're going to pick up loud speaker noise every time you pan to the left and little/no speaker noise the rest of the time.

On a pro shoot we put our mics on the ground out in front of the crowd at the other end of a 20m cable. When it's just me on my own with a handycam filming a show for fun, whenever speaker noise is a problem, I mount the microphone on the tripod itself rather than on top of the camera (you can buy a $2 cold shoe from eBay and glue it to the tripod legs; I am lazy and use Gaffa tape). Then I position myself on the crowdline between two speakers, and bingo: where ever the camera is pointing, the mic itself is always facing forwards onto the airfield, through a gap between the speakers.

The other advantage is that, with a stereo mic (which most are nowadays), this method also means you get the advantage of the sound of the aircraft moving from the left channel to the right channel as it passes by, and vice versa - which is of course the very thing that stereo mics were designed for. Mounting a stereo mic on a moving camera kind of defeats the point of having stereo in the first place.

Standing far away from the loud speakers would disadvantage the video portion as you'd want to be as close to the crowd line/action as possible.
Thanks!

I wouldn't be afraid of that. Yes, given the choice, I always prefer to stand on or in front of the crowdline - who wouldn't? But being further back can have its advantages and I don't hesitate to move rearwards if crowding or audio is a problem at the front.

1. The field of view is usually better. If you're on the crowdline sandwiched between people, the field of view is probably less than 150 degrees after accounting for elbows, heads and lenses getting in the way - no good for catching a photo pass that starts over one shoulder and continues right round over the other shoulder. Further back = less dense crowd = fewer intruding body parts.

2. It's easier. Those whip pans as a jet flies by occur more slowly, so the pan is easier to manage and thus you can zoom in more if you want to. Take a look at most of the big airshow livestreams by major national and international broadcasters (eg. Swiss Air Force 100th anniversary by Swiss national TV, Airpower Zeltweg by Red Bull TV, Italian AF centenary by Italian national TV) all have one thing in common: most of the cameras are at the back. Those big broadcasters want to make life as easy as possible for their (usually non-aviation-specialist) camera crews. And yes, those fast passes are a bit less dynamic, but...

3. It's a chance to get some different shots not possible from the crowdline. Perhaps some wide shots that give a flavour of the event with a sea of heads or static aircraft in the foreground. For example...

Take-offs between heads with motion blur looks great!

Ex1 heads.gif (9.83 MiB) Viewed 391 times

And if you do decide to pull wide to catch a bomb burst or a tricky-to-track sneak pass, that wide shot is going to look much nicer if the bottom half is full of people enjoying the show, rather than a featureless windswept dusty airfield.

Ex2 crowd34.gif (9.75 MiB) Viewed 391 times

Even if audio isn't a problem, there's a good reason to move rearwards some of the time. My go-to at a multiday show is to spend one day at the front for dynamic shots and one day further back for better audio and for wide-angle shots showing the crowd and venue in the foreground. Then, mix them together in the edit, as shown below. Both practical, and effective.

Ex3 multicuts.gif (8.95 MiB) Viewed 391 times

(This is also a good MO for displays with ground pyro; film wide one day and tight on the aircraft ignoring the pyro entirely the next day, then mix them, rather than attempting horrible crash zooms when the pyro goes off and probably ruining both days' footage).

[RyanS]

Yeah you can mix other stuff over it also, I have started collecting a library of background sounds to use when I need to save a video but thankfully I don't have to use it much

We use Rode Videomicros, I don't think they are particularly directional compared to others but I think the manual audio gain is the biggest help

[EvanJScott]

Wow, thank you both for such thorough replies. This community has been nothing but helpful. These are incredible tips really well articulated.

I'm already planning out how I'm going to tackle the next one. My only "problem" is that I'm using an iPhone to film. Which when I tell anyone that they think I'm crazy... but the 15 Pro Max has a 5x telephoto 120mm equivalent lens now and can record ProRes Log to an external SSD over USB-C. It looks great when you're physically close enough but 120mm is still a bit too wide for the more distant maneuvers. That's why the suggestion of backing up away from the crowd line had me a little worried as I've got to compensate a bit with my feet. I want to upgrade to a more appropriate zoom lens camera at some point but part of me is stubborn and having fun pushing this phone to its limits. I'm even currently working on a video showing how I do it.

If I do decide to upgrade to a "proper" camera at some point, what is your go-to?

Also you mentioned shows with known overly-loud speakers - any examples? I'm mostly covering West Coast US shows for the time being.

[Adam]

I'm quite sure Ryan and I will say the same thing here: Sony FDR-AX53!

AirshowStuff use it. I used to have one. Some of my airshow friends use it. It's a decade old design now, but still very popular because nobody's bested it. It's probably the ultimate compromise between zoom length, purchase price and stabilisation (which is the best you'll find on pretty much any video camera, even one 5x the price).

I later swapped it for a Panasonic HC-X1500, which won't be for everyone.

Pros: proper manual controls, which the Sony lacks, and built-in ND filters, which are a godsend on a bright day.

Cons: twice the price and far inferior stabilisation, meaning it can ONLY be used on a tripod (the Sony can comfortably be used handheld). Terrible preamps add noticeable background hiss whenever using a plug-in microphone.

[RyanS]

Yep 100% the AX-53 is the way to go, certainly for handheld at least. I started out using the old family camcorder so no shame in using what you have!

I find the speaker arrangement changes from year to year so I don't think we can make a list of perpetually bad shows. One example is Yuma which in 2019 had the loudest speakers I've ever heard and I literally wore earplugs the entire show. This year they were set up a little further apart and not cranked up and we got usable footage from the entire day. I go more on a general understanding of the crowd area and reports from friends who may have gone that this or that show might be more favorable or not. I know in Sacramento we had a great time filming on Friday when most speakers were turned off, but on Saturday/Sunday we got very little because they were unavoidable.

[passedgas46]

Like most of you I've usually been among the first in when the gates open - and I don't take pictures or video, I want to watch. I and my group will stake out a spot near the crowd line between speakers like most of you - I say near because there's times we give it up to those with the professional cameras on agreement that they show their work after the weekend's over - usually by sharing a business card. Only one videographer has not agreed to this principle and he typically brings a one-step folding stool with him and still has to be at the crowd line. Inconsiderate egotistical quack.

Speaker locations... are there any larger airshows remaining where all of the public address system speakers are in the crowd area? NAS Pensacola, based on my experience and videos I've seen from the 2000s and early 2010s fit this to a tee. I think it also comes down to the sound company that was contracted to the airshow, correct?

In looking at videos from prominent Airshow YouTubers - I've noticed that they don't seem to have this issue. Is there some obvious trick I'm missing on how to avoid capturing the music? Standing far away from the loud speakers would disadvantage the video portion as you'd want to be as close to the crowd line/action as possible. It would also mean that the narration isn't audible which I think is quite helpful to include.

I've always wondered this too. In my area there's at least three, maybe four who I'm sure have run into this issue. Again, they're all at the crowd line. From my observations the last few years, there's nothing special on their video cameras. One's got an external mic that I'm sure captures everything in all directions (forgive me, audio and video are not my areas of expertise) and the others seem to use whatever they've got on the camera. All small cameras, too, except for one.

I've heard a "it is what it is" answer for dealing with the speakers with "be the first one there" and "you just need to get creative" thrown in.

I know it's a big issue seeing as a lot of Blue Angels videos from the late 2000s and a good chunk of the 2010s seem to be disappearing from my favorite YouTubers' channels.

[EvanJScott]

Thanks for the incredible suggestions everyone. I'll give the Sony a look. At first glance it's not got all the manual control I'd want, but I could probably learn to live with it for the zoom!

One thing I'd definitely miss is the LOG encoding and high bitrate ProRes of the iPhone. Yeah it's probably overkill, but it really makes sharp images. The 5x tele lens on it is firmly in the "just barely enough" camp to be able to pull this off... but if they ever put a longer lens on it, it might be perfect. The stabilization is excellent - better than any dedicated video camera I've seen. I was able to get a pretty stable and decent video from El Centro despite the crowd line being weirdly far away from where most of the maneuvering was happening:



One thing I was looking into re: audio was 32 bit float recording. Has anyone tried it? Airshows seem like they would be a perfect use case for it since you in theory don't have to set a gain at all while recording and essentially choose it in post. I wonder if the added dynamic range would make isolating out music easier too...